Gay Abel-Bey

After receiving her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, Gay Abel-Bey earned her M.F.A. in Film from UCLA. She was granted The Dorothy Arzner Award for high recognition of a dramatic piece by a woman for her thesis film, Fragrance (1991).

As a graduate student, Abel-Bey taught courses in scriptwriting and production for the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and produced a number of instructional videos. She became involved with the prestigious local film festival, Filmex, and also co-hosted a retrospective for the National Film School of London. In addition, Abel-Bey developed a community-based documentary workshop for at-risk youth in Los Angeles.

Her work includes producing a number of independent projects, such as: “Father and Son,” which received a Sony Innovators Award, “When It’s Your Turn” for WPVI-TV, Philadelphia, and “Stone Cold Hustler,” which won a local Emmy in Washington, D.C.

Abel-Bey began teaching at New York University in 1995, where she currently serves as an Academic Advisor for the Undergraduate Division of Film & Television and teaches courses in film production and scriptwriting.